Welcome to the climate-wise reforestation toolkit. Due to significant levels of tree mortality during the 2012 to 2016 California drought, there is now a need to reforest in areas where much of the forest overstory has been lost. The toolkit consists of three resources that can be used individually or together to inform reforestation decisions in context of tree mortality and climate change. The reforestation prioritization tool was designed to help locate where to reforest based on the level of tree mortality and other user-defined variables. The post-drought stand condition tool was designed to allow users to explore newly changed conditions on their National Forest area of interest. And finally, to help guide planting techniques, we have compiled a brief best management practices (BMPs) summary. These tools can be used along with site visits, local knowledge, and individual management goals to aid project planning. Specifically, we hope this tool will help communicate manager’s reforestation ideas and also interactively game different scenarios with interested stakeholders, facilitating their input. Tools can be accessed using the tabs above.

More details:

Reforestation Prioritization Tool: This tool helps identify priority areas for reforestation activities in forest landscapes. It combines remotely-sensed estimates of forest mortality with user-weighted data layers to prioritize areas for reforestation within a given area of interest on National Forest lands within the Sierra Nevada. In the Reforestation Prioritization Tool tab, 1) select your area of interest (national forest or ranger district), 2) select the level of forest loss that triggers a need for reforestation, 3) weight priority data layers (e.g. drought risk) according to your objectives, 4) run the prioritization calculation, and 5) download maps and/or a prioritization raster layer.
Post-drought Stand Condition Tool: This tool provides insights into post-drought stand conditions, such as live and dead tree basal area and tree regeneration densities by species. It summarizes stand data collected following the recent 2012-16 drought in treated (pre-drought density reduction) and untreated forest stands of the southern and central Sierra Nevada. Users can find further analysis of these data in Restaino et al. 2019, and associated research brief.
Best Management Practices (BMPs): Reforestation Best Management Practices are summarized based on a recent review of the state of the science. Emphasis is placed on strategies that consider climate change and altered disturbance regimes rather than the technical aspects of reforestation, which can be found elsewhere. Users are encouraged to consult literature reviewing the state of the science of forest reforestation strategies, which have been incorporated in the suggested.

More information can be found in the Technical Information tab and in a video tutorial of the toolkit.